Malta Planning

Malta Planning 

A visit to Malta had been on my mind for a long time! It's a small set of islands, smack in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, full of history and an interesting mix of culture and food influences. I thought at first that it might be a good escape for winter, but a check of the usual weather told me we should push it a bit towards spring.

So, about a year in advance, we booked an apartment in the capital, Valletta, for 10 days. We figured that was enough for a good taste!

Some time later, I looked at how to get there 🤭.

We could fly from Marseilles, but that would be on an airline we prefer to avoid (R...r). Then I looked what it would take to drive there - 20 hours of driving time, cut up into a few days! Wow, that seemed great!

My itinerary looked like this:

Drive - France through Italy to Malta ferry

- 7 hr drive to Genoa 

- Genoa 2 nights (1 day-tour)

- 6 hr drive to Rome, along coast 

- Rome 4 nights (3 days touring)

- 7(+) hr drive to ferry, overnight 

- early ferry to Messina, Sicily, then 2.5 hrs drive, ferry to ferry in Pozzallo

- late evening (7pm) ferry to Valletta, Malta 

Valletta visit 

I checked on car ferries, and how to leave the car in Sicily:

Italy ferry

- $90 total including car ($75), round trip 

- 9:20am

- 20 minutes 

- check-in before 2 hours ahead (7:20am)

Approximately 6 non-driving hours in Sicily between ferries - what to do?

Park in Pozzalo 

Sicily-Malta ferry schedule (< 3 months in advance): 

- 71€ ea one way (?) $220 total (?)

- check-in by 60 minutes ahead 

- 1h45 travel time 

- 7pm Pozzalo to Valletta 

- 6:30am Valletta to Pozzalo 

Well.... Things were adding up! Plus logistics were getting complicated! But, we still thought it could work. 

Then I started plotting our return - it only makes sense to see something different, right? I started looking for interesting stops...

Drive through Italy and France 

- Sicily - stop in Taormina, maybe cut over to Palermo 

- 4 hr drive San Marino/Rimini - Milan 

- 2 hr drive Milan - Turin 

- 4 hr drive Turin - Nice

- 4 hr drive Nice - Marseille - Sète (via Aix en Provence)

What about Naples? Tuscany? Cinque Terre?

I looked at driving rules in Italy - we could easily add Italy to our toll card. But all of the cities we would stop in had restricted zones - residents can get a pass and drive there, but not visitors. We'd have to stay outside, and take taxis or tours in. We'd have to make sure our route didn't inadvertently run us through a restricted corner (automatic fine, mailed to your home - too bad if you don't notice, and take that route several times!).

At this point, our 10-day "Malta" trip had turned into a 2 month Italy trip! Oh yeah, and some Malta... I decided I was overwhelmed. 

I took a step back. I looked at other flights, and found a nice set of steps:

- Montpellier to Rome

- Sightsee a while 

- Rome to Malta 

- Have our Malta trip (!!!)

- Fly Malta-Rome-Montpellier

Perfect!